rkg

Grev, Excellent Idea, fwiw. I've thought a book (or file) with kao and associated names would be extremely handy. Good Luck with your endeavor. Best, rkg (Richard George)

And here's a kamakura tsuba I just came across that is apparently cut down: https://page.auction.../auction/e1156532313 And here is an image I snarfed from the auction, saved for posterity. I don't own the image (or piece) and I am presenting it for educational purposes only... And actually, if you look at the bottom of the piece you can see a little "keyway" on the bottom in the edge of the mimi that is usually an indicator that there was a fukurin on the piece at some point. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Here's a pre-edo Kamakura tsuba: Best, rkg (Richard George)

Curran, The piece came with that monster shingen I have - the nakago ana are identical so it would appear they were possibly made for the same sword. Dimensions: 99.8mm H X 99.8mm W X 11.5mm T Not meaning to threadjack, but here's a couple of posts on this on FB https://www.facebook...et=a.266009073454448 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02mtsns6mZqhsn3EacvX6d5EuHWjQTFLDrTEyUEzpdGGTRWkzSCUmKVrh6fTQYQ8Efl&id=266005023454853&__cft__[0]=AZU8RA2JpUMk9mCEIqS5_ppmy6tJmF0NBsV6rdhVv4J2aX4Wkqlccf7MSBXltg8qoQUew794vtZIJd6T6XpwyrVH4Dk14QuAtC5ULOMcYPkwGczKVDqauSxpxrEdnbHbSZohTByXnWD8uE-Y1k7GLCRcdIrXrUzocXHl44DOVl9iXyUndMXq1aAdUN88wC7MRjQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R rkg

I have a brass tsuba that weighs 672 grams: Best, rkg (Richard George)

Congratulations! Best, rkg (Richard George)

Here ya go - I hope it helps... Best, rkg (Richard George)

I have one similar to this that I got not too long ago, but I haven't photographed it yet. Here is an image from the auction: Best, rkg (Richard George)

Mauro and everybody else who replied - thanks! Best, rkg (Richard George)

I haven't been able to shoot anything for over a year due to health issues - but I FINALLY got the studio cleared out, the various wind up stands in place, figured out how photoshop photoshop had screwed up my workflow (and workarounds), etc, and... Just for grins, here's a couple of images of a ko-tosho (or at least that is what the NBTHK thought it was, FWIW) I picked up off of yahoo!Japan not too long ago. I am not sure what the theme is, comments about what it might be are appreciated. The little beastie has a black coating - when I get some more time I will have to ascertain if it's black lacquer (I that might be what is going on) or if somebody put black wax or something on it. I need to pull down the microscope and fix that workflow next, thought that might take a while as I have a whole bunch of other fittings to try imaging. The piece measures74.2mm(H) X 73.3mm(W). It measures 2.9mm(max) at the seppa area and tapers to 2.3mm (max) at the mimi. rkg (Richard George)

That would be the arsenic leaching out of the lead Best, rkg (Richard George)

you might as well use copper or silver. As an aside, does anybody use copper pennies (if you're us based) for this, or do you scare up pure copper or yamagane? (not that I'm suggesting defacing US currency as that would be illegal, but...) Best, rkg (Richard George)

Another pervasive surface hack used on iron pieces like yours is the dreaded "brown wax". A lot of material coming out of Japan these days suffers from this and sometimes the wax is laid on like putty to hide a multitude of sins. you can use some high test isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip somewhere inconspicuous, and if it comes off brown... Clear wax over a good surface with no active rust is a personal choice (and it does make a lot of pieces look better), but the hackers often use the brown stuff to hide active rust issues, deep pitting, areas of corrosion (that look like sandpaper), cracks, even out botched repatination, etc. This is bad because the corrosion continues under the surface - wax is permeable and the rust can still get what it needs to continue reacting. The sad part is that sometimes they'll use the brown wax even when there's nothing to hide - just as part of their rework process - I guess they think it makes the piece look better And.. you often can't just clean it off because it opens a whole can of worms to try and conserve the result. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Darrel, Old school gray cards were more for setting tone than being neutral gray. Sometimes the greys weren't neutral - fortunately, a lot of the newer ones have a true gray so you can set the colors/exposure accurately - FWIW, here's a card that also incorporates a white surface (a lot of photo editing tools play better with a white card than a gray card)as well as a scale - I normally use a version of these that runs the scale down the side instead of just a short scale at the end: https://www.bhphotov...ration_Card_101.html They are real handy as you can leave them somewhere in the frame without it taking up too much room when shooting tosogu. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Lotsa gimei pieces showing up on YJ lately... rkg (Richard George)